The next big business trend that we are going to see, and that is happening already, is not only that aboriginal businesses are going to be stronger components of the corporate supply chain, but we are also going to see them as stronger proponents of equity positions and actual partners within resource projects.

JP Gladu of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business discusses native participation in resource industries...Read More

Posts tagged ‘tungsten’

How might a U.S.-China trade war affect rare earths?

At first glance, the rare earths aspect of the U.S.-China tariffs tussle looks like small change—a proposed 10% duty on American RE imports that might cause a smallish markup on some manufactured goods and wouldn’t necessarily apply to defence uses. But all that’s part of a much bigger battle that will probably target $250 billion of Chinese exports to the U.S. China used an incomparably smaller incident in 2010 to rationalize a ruthless sequence of rare earths trade machinations. Could something like that happen again, this time with different results?

Hostilities began earlier this month as the U.S. imposed a 25% tariff on approximately $34 billion worth of Chinese imports, with levies on another $16 billion likely to come. China retaliated with tariffs on equal amounts of American imports.

The U.S. re-retaliated with a threatened 10% on an additional $200 billion of Chinese imports in a process that would follow public consultation. The additional list includes rare earth metals along with yttrium and scandium, which are often considered REs but rate distinct categories in this case.

Last year the U.S. imported $150 million worth of 15 RE metals and compounds, up from $118 million the previous year, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Some 78% came directly from China, with much of the rest derived from Chinese-produced concentrates. Yttrium shows a similar story, with 71% coming directly from China and nearly all the rest from Chinese concentrates. Although lacking hard numbers for scandium, the USGS states that too comes mostly from China.

Globally, China produced over 80% of world RE supply last year, but with less than 37% of the planet’s reserves.

Rare earths watchers will remember the 2010 confrontation around the disputed South China Sea islands of Senkaku. The Japanese navy arrested a Chinese fishing crew captain who had twice rammed his boat against the military vessel. Within days, China banned all rare earths exports to Japan, crippling its globally important but RE-dependent manufacturers. China also imposed heavy cutbacks and duties on exports to other countries.

While some Western manufacturers relocated to China, Western resource companies strove to develop alternative supplies. Lynas Corp’s Mount Veld project in Western Australia and Molycorp’s Mountain Pass project in California both reached production in 2013. The following year the U.S. claimed victory as the World Trade Organization ordered China to drop its export restrictions on rare earths, as well as tungsten and molybdenum.

China complied with a vengeance, flooding the world with cheap RE supply. America’s WTO victory proved Pyrrhic as a burgeoning non-Chinese supply chain failed to compete. The most salient casualty was Mountain Pass, which went on care and maintenance in 2015.

So does China have more rare earths machinations in mind, this time responding not to a minor territorial dispute but tariffs affecting $250 billion of Chinese exports?

Maybe, but different circumstances might bring a different outcome. Since the Senkaku-induced RE crisis, advanced-stage projects have developed potential mines outside China. Work has progressed on non-Chinese supply chains, working to eliminate that country’s near-monopoly on processing expertise. Most recently, the U.S. has begun an official critical minerals policy to encourage development of supplies and supply chains in domestic and allied sources.

Of course any future scenario remains speculative. But this time the West might be better prepared for China’s tactics. Any new export restrictions might spur development of the deposits that now exist outside China. Any Chinese attempts to dump cheap supply could face further, far more punishing tariffs. While some other industries might suffer in the shorter term, Western resource companies might welcome Senkaku II.

The world’s largest economy and strongest military has taken another step to mitigate some surprising vulnerabilities. On February 16 the U.S. Department of the Interior released a draft list of 35 minerals deemed critical to American well-being. The move follows December’s presidential executive order calling for a “federal strategy to ensure secure and reliable supplies of critical minerals.” In response the U.S. Geological Survey compiled the new list, which now awaits input from the public. Americans have until March 19 to respond.

“The work of the USGS is at the heart of our nation’s mission to reduce our vulnerability to disruptions in the supply of critical minerals,” commented the DOI’s Tim Petty. “Any shortage of these resources constitutes a strategic vulnerability for the security and prosperity of the United States.”

The list defines “critical” as “a non-fuel mineral or mineral material essential to the economic and national security of the United States, the supply chain of which is vulnerable to disruption, and that serves an essential function in the manufacturing of a product, the absence of which would have significant consequences for the economy or national security.”

Among them are “aluminum—used in almost all sectors of the economy; the platinum group metals—used for catalytic agents; rare earth elements—used in batteries and electronics; tin—used as protective coatings and alloys for steel; and titanium—overwhelmingly used as a white pigment or as a metal alloy.”

Just one day before Donald Trump issued the order, the USGS released a nearly 900-page report, the first thorough examination of the subject since 1973, detailing 23 critical minerals. All 23 made the new list, with 12 newcomers including scandium, uranium and tungsten. Rare earths come under a single category of 17 elements. The list can be seen here, with links to USGS reports on each mineral.

Speaking with ResourceClips.com days after the president’s order, Jeff Green called it the country’s “most substantive development in critical mineral policy in 20 years.” The U.S. Air Force Reserve colonel, former USAF commander and Washington defence lobbyist added that a new critical minerals policy would largely benefit American companies and supply chains. But he pointed out that Trump “also said that international co-operation and partnerships with our strongest allies will be really important.”

This is the week that the country’s mining ministers convene with their counterparts from all Canadian jurisdictions. Taking place this year in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, the Energy and Mines Ministers’ Conference will “discuss shared priorities for collaborative action to advance energy and mining development across the country.” Participants will also hear from the industry and its critics, with the latter highlighting NB’s proposed Sisson tungsten-molybdenum open pit mine.

The Canadian Mineral Industry Federation proposed reforms in six key areas that would expand the industry’s “vast socio-economic contributions to Canadians.” Not surprisingly, regulatory streamlining topped the list. The group called for an “effective, timely and co-ordinated regulatory process, from pre-environmental assessment to post-EA permitting.”

Workers at the Sisson project, one of the world’s largest undeveloped tungsten deposits and now site of a protest camp.

Proportionately Canada’s largest private sector employer of natives, the industry called on governments to enhance indigenous participation through “investments in health, education and skills training, and by implementing government resource revenue-sharing mechanisms.”

Looking at climate change, the CMIF warned that poorly crafted regulations could push mining “to competitor countries with less stringent climate change policies.” The group also called on governments to acknowledge the challenges of working in remote regions dependent on diesel fuel.

On a related topic, the CMIF encouraged governments to provide isolated regions with better infrastructure to “benefit both industry and local and indigenous communities.”

Concern about a shrinking land base prompted the CMIF to recommend that “mineral potential is factored into all land withdrawal decision-making processes.”

The group also called for government and industry to collaborate on a Clean Resources Innovation Supercluster, which would concentrate industry, R&D and associated small and medium-sized enterprises in one area to attract investment and develop synergies.

A coalition of native and advocacy groups, however, challenged the conference to make good on this year’s theme of Clean Growth.

“We’re not against ‘clean growth’ or ‘clean energy’ but these must not be empty words,” said Jacinda Mack, co-ordinator of First Nations Women Advocating for Responsible Mining and a community member affected by British Columbia’s 2014 Mount Polley tailings dam collapse. “We’re here to alert the public and our governments that there are still serious problems with the way mining is done in this country, and that there can’t be any clean growth or clean energy without first having clean mining.”

The coalition also emphasized its opposition to the proposed Sisson open pit mine, about 330 kilometres by road from the conference location. A partnership of Northcliff Resources TSX:NCF and a subsidiary of family-owned Todd Corp, the plan received federal environmental approval in June. Proponents describe Sisson as one of the world’s largest undeveloped tungsten deposits, with an estimated 27-year lifespan.

But a newly released report charges that the project’s “mining waste facility design is business-as-usual, using the same facility design and water cover approach used at the failed Mount Polley mine.”

Members of the Maliseet First Nations have occupied a protest camp at Sisson since early July. In February, chiefs of the six Maliseet nations signed a multi-million-dollar revenue-sharing deal with the province, CBC reported. But five of the chiefs later “denounced” the agreement, the network stated.

The coalition estimates liability for contaminated mine sites across Canada to surpass $10 billion, a figure that “can easily triple or quadruple once the true costs for site cleanup and risks from spills and failures are considered.”

Two newly elected governments join the conference this year. In November the Yukon Liberals returned to power after a 14-year hiatus. Last month B.C.’s NDP was sworn in as the province’s new government after gaining support from the three-MLA Green Party to vote down the minority BC Liberals’ Throne Speech.

With a tensile strength of 1,510 megapascals, we now know tungsten as the strongest naturally occurring metal on Earth.

This infographic is from Almonty Industries, a tungsten producer, and it reveals the history of tungsten.

Interestingly, the infographic shows that despite tungsten’s strength, most of civilization has lived without any practical use of the metal. That’s because tungsten wasn’t officially discovered until the 18th century—though, as you will see, it was a thorn in the side of metallurgists for many centuries before that.

From the heavens

Like all elements with an atomic number higher than iron, tungsten cannot be created by nuclear fusion in stars like our sun.

Instead, tungsten is thought to be formed from the explosions of massive stars. Each supernova explosion has so much energy that these newly created elements are jettisoned at incredible speeds of 30,000 kilometres per second, or 10% of the speed of light—and that’s how they get dispersed throughout the universe.

Supernova explosions don’t happen often—as a result, in every one million grams of the Earth’s crust, there are only 1.25 grams of tungsten.

An unusual history

In the periodic table, tungsten is listed under the letter W. That’s because two names for the same metal actually arose simultaneously.

Wolfram: derived from the German words “wolf” (English: wolf) and the Middle High German word “ram” (English: dirt).

In the Middle Ages, tin miners in Germany complained about a mineral (wolframite) that accompanied tin ore and reduced tin yields when smelting. With a longish, hair-like appearance, wolframite was thought to be a “wolf” that ate up the tin. Wolframite had plagued metallurgists for many centuries, until tungsten was discovered and proper methods were developed to deal with the heavy metal.

Tungsten: derived from the Swedish words “tung” (English: heavy) and “sten” (English: stone) due to its density.

Scheelite, the other important tungsten ore, was discovered in an iron mine in Sweden in 1750. It garnered interest for its incredible density—which is why it was named “heavy stone.”

The discovery

The metal was discovered by Spanish nobleman Juan José D´Elhuyar, who eventually synthesized tungsten from both wolframite and scheelite—showing they were both minerals from the same new element.

History of tungsten uses

Discoveries in tungsten use can be loosely linked to four fields: chemicals, steel and super alloys, filaments and carbides.

1847: Tungsten salts are used to make coloured cotton and to fireproof clothes used for theatrical and other purposes.

1855: The Bessemer process is invented, allowing for the mass production of steel. At the same time, the first tungsten steels are being made in Austria.

1895: Thomas Edison investigated materials’ ability to fluoresce when exposed to X-rays and found that calcium tungstate was the most effective substance.

1900: High-speed steel, a special mix of steel and tungsten, is exhibited at the World Exhibition in Paris. It maintains its hardness at high temperatures, perfect for use in tools and machining.

1903: Filaments in lamps and lightbulbs were the first use of tungsten that made use of its extremely high melting point and its electrical conductivity. The only problem? Early attempts found tungsten to be too brittle for widespread use.

1909: William Coolidge and his team at General Electric are successful in discovering a process that creates ductile tungsten filaments through suitable heat treatment and mechanical working.

1911: The Coolidge process is commercialized and in a short time tungsten light bulbs spread all over the world equipped with ductile tungsten wires.

1913: A shortage in industrial diamonds in Germany during World War I leads researchers to look for an alternative to diamond dies, which are used to draw wire.

1914: “It was the belief of some Allied military experts that in six months Germany would be exhausted of ammunition. The Allies soon discovered that Germany was increasing her manufacture of munitions and for a time had exceeded the output of the Allies. The change was in part due to her use of tungsten high-speed steel and tungsten cutting tools. To the bitter amazement of the British, the tungsten so used, it was later discovered, came largely from their Cornish Mines in Cornwall.”—From K.C. Li’s 1947 book Tungsten

1923: A German electrical bulb company submits a patent for tungsten carbide, or hardmetal. It’s made by “cementing” very hard tungsten monocarbide (WC) grains in a binder matrix of tough cobalt metal by liquid phase sintering. The result changed the history of tungsten: a material which combines high strength, toughness and high hardness. In fact, tungsten carbide is so hard, the only natural material that can scratch it is a diamond. (Carbide is the most important use for tungsten today.)

1930s: New applications arose for tungsten compounds in the oil industry for the hydro-treating of crude oils.

1940: The development of iron, nickel and cobalt-based superalloys begins, to fill the need for a material that can withstand the incredible temperatures of jet engines.

1942: During World War II, the Germans were the first to use tungsten carbide core in high-velocity armour-piercing projectiles. British tanks virtually “melted” when hit by these tungsten carbide projectiles.

1945: Annual sales of incandescent lamps are 795 million per year in the U.S.

1950s: By this time, tungsten is being added into superalloys to improve their performance.

1960s: New catalysts were born containing tungsten compounds to treat exhaust gases in the oil industry.

1964: Improvements in efficiency and production of incandescent lamps reduce the cost of providing a given quantity of light by a factor of 30, compared with the cost at introduction of Edison’s lighting system.

2000: At this point, about 20 billion metres of lamp wire are drawn each year, a length which corresponds to about 50 times the Earth-moon distance. Lighting consumes between 4% and 5% of the total tungsten production.

Tungsten steel alloys are also used in the production of rocket engine nozzles, which must have good heat-resistant properties. Super alloys containing tungsten are used in turbine blades and wear-resistant parts and coatings.

However, at the same time, the reign of the incandescent light bulb has come to an end after 132 years, as they start to get phased out in the U.S. and Canada.

Lac de Gras glitter became the backbone of the NWT economy

The greatest staking rush the world’s likely seen, a shakeup of the global diamond industry and a tremendous boost to Northwest Territories finances—all that started with the Ekati discovery announced by Chuck Fipke 25 years ago this week. The effects on the NWT alone were momentous. The exploration sector boomed like never before, reaping four discoveries in six years that became working mines, while communities and individuals realized benefits both tangible and intangible.

Exploration fervour “certainly caused an injection into the economy,” notes Tom Hoefer, NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines executive director. “But where it really made a difference was when we had mines developed.”

The Ekati mine began a transformation that out-performed all other resources and sectors in the NWT.

It actually took two operations, Ekati and Diavik, to offset the territory’s 1990s economic malaise, he says. Yellowknife’s Giant and Con mines were winding down their 50 to 60 years of gold production. Around the same time, Nunavut’s 1999 separation dealt a blow to NWT revenue. “So there was a double hit on the economy. When Ekati went into production, it wasn’t enough to offset that economic downturn. It wasn’t until Diavik that the economy turned around significantly.

“It was almost palpable when Diavik got its approval. You could cut it, you could just feel it, all of a sudden people were saying, ‘Now we’re set.’ Those turned out to be world-class diamond mines, so in hindsight people were right.”

Of more than $60 billion worth of NWT mining output since 1932, gold provided 18%. It’s sometimes forgotten that the territory was a major base metals producer too, with zinc accounting for 30% of that $60-plus billion. But less than two decades of diamond production contributed 38%. The value of annual diamond production has topped $2 billion in the past “and I think we’re around $1.7 billion now,” Hoefer says. “That’s pretty significant when you consider that the NWT government’s entire budget is about the same.”

With last year’s shutdown of the Cantung tungsten operation, the territory has no mining but diamond mining. The three mines now in operation rank Lac de Gras as the world’s third-largest producer by value.

Figures from 2014 credit diamond mining with a 29% direct contribution to territorial GDP, by far the largest private sector portion. Chamber data attributes direct and indirect benefits to about 40% .

Taking another perspective, Hoefer points to a 2014 Canada-wide survey on aboriginal perceptions of the mining industry. Outside the NWT and Nunavut, favourable ratings ranged from 25% in Quebec to 45% in the Yukon. NWT responses were 55% favourable compared to 33% unfavourable, with 12% undecided. The territory ranked second only to Nunavut, which had 59/32/9 ratings.

“I would say the reason is all the aboriginal participation we’ve had in mining,” Hoefer says.

An NWT-specific survey taken this year shows overwhelming support. About 80% of respondents expressed positive feelings about the territory’s mining and exploration companies, 83% said regulation works well and 82% want more mining projects.

Those responses might partly result from the way benefits are distributed. Territorial legislation requires mining proposals to address not only environmental impacts but also positive socio-economic effects, Hoefer explains. Companies sign agreements with the government that address training, employment and local spending. The miners then file annual reports stating what they’ve accomplished.

“Put the clock back to before diamonds were discovered and the first mine built, there was maybe just a handful of aboriginal companies that could work with mining.” Now the Chamber lists over 60 NWT aboriginal companies created since Ekati began construction in 1996. They’ve shared over $5 billion of the $12 billion that diamond miners have spent in the territory.

The mines have also contributed over $100 million to communities under Impact Benefit Agreements.

And of course there are the jobs. Lac de Gras diamonds have provided over 24,000 person-years of mine employment.

That’s really in essence what I think a government would want to do with its resources—generate wealth for people who don’t have it.—Tom Hoefer, executive director of the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines

“That’s really in essence what I think a government would want to do with its resources—generate wealth for people who don’t have it.”

Looking to the future, Lac de Gras explorers continue the quest for more deposits. Among existing miners, the Rio Tinto NYSE:RIO/Dominion Diamond TSX:DDC 60/40 JV expects Diavik to last until 2024. Plans to add a fourth deposit won’t extend the lifespan but will keep production robust until shutdown, Hoefer says.

De Beers’ technically challenged Snap Lake shut down last year, at a cost of about 750 jobs. Some of them were saved by Gahcho Kué, which last summer became the world’s largest diamond mine to open in 13 years. But despite output that’s expected to be about two and a half times greater than Snap, the open pit will employ fewer people, currently 441. The De Beers/Mountain Province Diamonds TSX:MPV 51%/49% JV sees an initial 12-year mine life, but Mountain Province talks optimistically of extensions.

Getting back to the genesis of all this economic activity, Dominion’s majority-held Ekati would have its life expectancy extended to at least 2030 should the Jay pipe addition pass feasibility and final permitting. The mine employs around 1,500 workers and accounts for about $400 million in annual spending.

Commemorating the quarter-century since Ekati’s discovery, the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines presents a Diamond Gala on November 17, the final evening of this year’s Geoscience Forum. Hoefer says the event will be a three-part celebration recognizing the discovery, the subsequent construction and operation of four mines, and the support of aboriginal governments. Fipke will be on hand as guest speaker, perhaps marvelling at the transformation brought about by his pursuit of Lac de Gras glitter.

The world’s biggest new diamond mine hardly satisfies NWT appetites

by Greg Klein

Self-congratulation might have been irresistible as 150 visitors from across Canada and the world flocked to a spot 280 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife to attend Gahcho Kué’s official opening on September 20. But there’s no evidence the mining and exploration crowd will waste much time resting on their laurels. JV partners De Beers and Mountain Province Diamonds TSX:MPV continue their pursuit of additional resources. And within sight of the Northwest Territories’ new mine, Mountain Province spinout Kennady Diamonds TSXV:KDI hopes success will repeat itself right next door.

Twenty-one years in the making and the world’s largest new diamond mine in 13 years, Gahcho Kué’s expected to give up 54 million carats over a 12-year lifespan. Average price estimates for the three pipes come to $150 per carat. That would provide Canada with gross value added benefits of $6.7 billion, $5.7 billion of that going to the NWT, which would gain nearly 1,200 jobs annually, according to an EY study released earlier this month.

Gahcho Kué partners hope to extend the mine well past its 12-year projection.

That’s a strong rebound for the territory’s biggest private sector industry, following last year’s shutdown of the Cantung Tungsten mine and De Beers’ Snap Lake. The closures left the NWT with just two mines, both diamond operations in the Lac de Gras region that also hosts the newcomer.

But those two mines, the Rio Tinto NYSE:RIO/Dominion Diamond TSX:DDC 60/40 JV at Diavik and Dominion’s majority-held Ekati, maintained Canada’s place as the world’s third-largest producer by value.

Holding 51% and 49% respectively of Gahcho Kué, De Beers and Mountain Province hope to prolong its duration. Rather expansively maybe, the slightly junior partner outlines a multi-phase program.

Should all go to plan, Phase II would upgrade resources into reserves, maybe adding as much as five years to the operation. Phase III would deepen the Tuzo pipe, bringing another three years. Phase IV would do the same to the 5034 and Hearne kimberlites, as well as bring on the new Tesla pipe. If plans, projections and prayers come to fruition, Gahcho Kué might end up with more than 20 years of operation. With optimism drowning out any puns regarding pipe dreams, Phase V calls for “new targets.”

At least that’s the tale told by Mountain Province. De Beers acts as project operator.

Another company also holds high hopes, as well as about 71,000 hectares to the north, west and south of Gahcho Kué. Mountain Province spun out the Kennady North project into Kennady Diamonds, which has been advancing its own ambitious timeline.

The project’s Kelvin kimberlite has a maiden resource slated for this quarter and a PEA for Q4. Subject to those results, the company hopes to take Kelvin to feasibility next year, and to complete resource estimates for the Faraday 1, 2 and 3 kimberlites less than three kilometres northeast.

On the eve of the Gahcho Kué grand opening, Kennady pronounced itself pleased with this year’s 612-tonne bulk sample recovery, averaging 2.09 carats of commercial-sized stones per tonne from Kelvin’s north limb. With last year’s south limb grade coming to 2.02 carats per tonne, the results show “remarkable consistency in overall diamond grade across the full extent of the body,” said president/CEO Rory Moore. “This is a positive attribute from both an evaluation and a mining perspective.”

In a crucial step, a parcel goes to Antwerp next month for a price evaluation, with results expected about three weeks later.

Kennady Diamonds hopes for a glittering future just north of Gahcho Kué.

Two rigs currently have the Faraday kimberlites subject to an 8,000-metre summer program of both exploration and delineation drilling. Out of 15 holes reported so far, 14 revealed kimberlite.

The summer program follows a 10,712-metre winter campaign that discovered Faraday 3 as well as four diamonds in drill core, two each from Faradays 1 and 3.

Two mini-bulk samples released this year for Faraday 1 averaged 4.65 carats per tonne and three carats per tonne respectively. Faraday 2 minis averaged 2.69 carats, 3.04 carats and 4.48 carats per tonne.

Last month Kennady expanded its property by another 4,233 hectares directly south of Gahcho Kué. But the company’s focus remains on the Kelvin-Faraday corridor north of the new mine.

As for De Beers, its other Canadian focus since Snap Lake’s demise has been the Victor mine in Ontario’s James Bay region. With less than five years of operation left, it too faces doom. Another seven years could potentially come from the Tango kimberlite, seven kilometres away and now undergoing a federal environmental review.

Local relations, however, have taken an unexpected turn. Last week De Beers Canada chief executive Kim Truter told CBC the company would go beyond the duty to consult and seek the Attawapiskat community’s outright consent for Tango. “It’s pointless us actually operating in these first nations areas if we don’t have local support,” he said.

The network added, “Support has been shaky in the first nation since the signing of the original agreement with De Beers in 2005. Band officials boycotted and picketed the grand opening of the mine in 2008 and the road into the mine has been blockaded several times, including in 2013.”

But Truter’s remarks drew an angry response from newly elected chief Ignace Gull, the Timmins Press reported September 19. The paper quoted a social media post in which he stated, “Attawapiskat is in a midst of suicide crisis and we need to deal with this first and they have to back off instead of threatening us.”

In Quebec’s James Bay region, Stornoway Diamond TSX:SWY began ore processing at its Renard project in July, expecting to achieve commercial operation by year-end. The province’s first diamond mine expects to average 1.6 million carats annually for an initial 14 years.

Back at Gahcho Kué, visitors celebrated the grand opening as a possible strike loomed. Last week CBC reported that mediation had broken down between a contractor and a Teamsters local representing around 60 camp kitchen and cleaning staff.

“On time, on budget and in a challenging environment,” as De Beers CEO Bruce Cleaver proudly noted, the world’s largest new diamond mine has begun full commissioning. The Northwest Territories open pit should reach full production in Q1 next year with average output of 4.5 million carats annually over its 13-year lifespan, according to an August 3 statement from Anglo American. Or a 12-year life, according to a same-day statement from Mountain Province Diamonds TSX:MPV.

Sub-arctic conditions hardly deter De Beers, which has opened three diamond mines in Canada’s north.

The company owns a 49% stake in the JV, with operator De Beers holding the rest. De Beers, in turn, is held 85% by Anglo and 15% by Botswana.

Mountain Province reported two large gem-quality stones recovered over the past few days, weighing in at 12.1 carats and 24.65 carats. The company expects its first diamond sale by year-end.

Located about 280 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife, Gahcho Kué sits in the diamondiferous Lac de Gras region that also hosts Dominion Diamond’s (TSX:DDC) majority-held Ekati mine, the Rio Tinto NYSE:RIO/Dominion 60/40 JV at Diavik, and Snap Lake, De Beers’ first mine outside Africa. De Beers also operates the Victor mine in northern Ontario.

Snap Lake, a money-loser since opening in 2008, shut down last December. The company plans to flood the mine unless a buyer can be found. Output from Ekati and Diavik, however, sustained the NWT’s rank as the world’s third-largest diamond producer by value.

The two operations also sustained mining as the NWT’s largest private sector employer, despite the closures of Snap Lake and North American Tungsten’s Cantung mine in October 2015.

In Quebec’s James Bay region, meanwhile, Stornoway Diamond TSX:SWY began processing ore at its Renard project last month, slated to achieve full nameplate capacity within nine months. The company will declare commercial production after 30 days of processing ore at 60% of nameplate capacity, expected to happen by year-end. The combined open pit/underground operation would average 1.8 million carats annually for the first 10 years of its 14-year life. Average prices have been estimated at $155 per carat.

The Book of Genesis somehow overlooks this country but Canada—traces of it, anyway—turns out to be an awful lot older than previously thought. In fact some Baffin Bay rocks contain relics an awful lot older than most of the planet, according to a team of scientists. The wonder of it is that, despite 4.5 billion years of geological turbulence, the Earth still retains these remnants of its 50-million-year babyhood.

These Baffin Bay rocks host 4.5-billion-year-old silicate material formed when “baby Earth” was less than 50 million years of age.(Photo: Don Francis)

But don’t expect to see them, handle them or trip over them next time you’re footloose in Nunavut. Their presence can be detected only with an extremely sensitive mass spectrometer.

He came to this study through his work with high-precision isotopic measurements. That makes tungsten especially interesting. “Its isotopic composition varies primarily as the result of the decay of another element, hafnium, at the other end of solar system history,” Walker explains. “The isotope of hafnium that decays to tungsten, hafnium-182, has a half-life of only about nine million years. So it was present for maybe the first 50 million years of solar system history. Any variations in tungsten isotopic composition that would follow had to have been created within the first 50 million years of solar system history.”

Walker and his colleagues didn’t expect to find such variations in Earth rocks when they began their study of core formation. The hot, metallic centre of the planet seems to have formed in the first 30 million years of the solar system. “By inference it has a very different tungsten isotopic composition from the rest of the planet. So one of the reasons we got into tungsten isotopes is we’re looking for some geochemical evidence for core-mantle interaction.

“Surprisingly, things didn’t turn out at all like we expected. The isotopic composition of the core, by inference, is presumed to be considerably lower than you, me and light bulbs. Almost all the stuff we have measured in early Earth rocks is actually higher. So that requires some process other than extracting the tungsten from the core. That’s what this paper is all about.”

But the rocks that we’re reporting data for in this study are only a few tens of millions of years old. These are not old rocks, they’re what we consider practically modern rocks.—Richard Walker, professor of geology atthe University of Maryland

His team and another group had previously found similar isotopic compositions in rocks ranging from 2.5 billion to four billion years of age. “But the rocks that we’re reporting data for in this study are only a few tens of millions of years old. These are not old rocks, they’re what we consider practically modern rocks. But they show the isotopic imprint of the process that happened within the Earth—wow!—really, really early in its history while it was still growing.”

Again, the finding isn’t the rocks themselves, as some media reported. It’s the isotopic measurement, imprint, signature or, to use a word concocted by the U of M press office, “birthmark.”

“I kinda like that term,” Walker says. It represents a portion of the Earth’s mantle that was somehow isolated from the rest of the planet’s middle part over 4.5 billion years ago.

Lead author Hanika Rizo of l’Université du Québec found the Canadian examples on Padloping Island off Baffin Island’s southeastern coast. Only a few rocks have been analyzed so far. “The general type of rock that’s being measured extends over thousands of square kilometres,” Walker points out. “We don’t know how much of this rock has that unusual isotopic signature. That’s something we’ll be working on for years to come.”

Similar findings came from the Ontong Java Plateau northeast of Papua New Guinea.

As for the world’s oldest actual rocks, Walker says that’s a matter of debate. “Everybody accepts that there are rocks that are more than 3.9 billion years old.”

He and some colleagues are among those who believe that rocks from the Nuvvuagittuq Belt of arctic Quebec’s Hudson Bay coast date back at least 4.3 billion years.

Zircons from Western Australia’s Jack Hills date back at least 4.4 billion years. “The rocks they’re found in are nowhere near that age but some of the minerals themselves can be dated to even older than 4.4 billion years.”

But as for the “birthmarks” of Nunavut and Micronesia, they convey a sense of drama to the cognoscenti. This planet, “despite having a very exciting and violent birth in the form of probably a sequence of giant impacts building a bigger and bigger Earth, never completely got itself chemically homogenized,” Walker says. “It’s surprising that we have somewhere down there remnants of the Earth that formed more than 4.5 billion years ago. That’s exciting, at least to a geologist—this goes back to the earliest stages of Earth history.”

Along with Walker and Rizo, report authors include Richard Carlson and Mary Horan of the Carnegie Institution for Science, Sujoy Mukhopadhyay, Vicky Manthos and Matthew Jackson of the University of California, and Don Francis of McGill University.

The NWT tries to gauge social impacts of its largest industry

by Greg Klein

Does diamond mining affect rates of STDs? Tuberculosis, family violence, teen pregnancy or suicide? The Northwest Territories government actually tried to find answers to those questions and others. An exercise that arose out of socio-economic agreements with the territory’s diamond miners, many of its results were—not surprisingly—inconclusive. Even so, the report offers perspective on mining-related issues that are often overlooked.

Two diamond operations comprise the sum total of NWT mining now that a third, De Beers’ Snap Lake, went on care and maintenance last December. That shutdown followed North American Tungsten’s (TSXV:NTC) C&M decision for its Cantung mine. But during the last fiscal year, the three diamond mines paid taxes of $44 million to the territory, an 11% increase over the previous year. Miners also pay the territory royalties.

Up to 2013 the territory diverted $39 million in diamond royalties to three native governments with settled land claims, according to figures supplied by the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines. In 2015, the NWT shared nearly $6.3 million with nine native groups that signed the devolution agreement. The territory says it collected $63 million in diamond royalties in 2014 to 2015, half of which went to the feds.

In 2014 diamond mines created over 3,200 person-years of employment and paid more than $653 million to northern businesses, about 33% of which were aboriginal-owned.

Those outcomes can be quantified. What’s harder to assess are changes for better or worse on individuals, communities and culture since diamond mining started in 1998. Nevertheless, the NWT tried, looking at a range of factors affecting Yellowknife and seven small communities, all roughly 250 kilometres southwest of the Lac de Gras diamond camp.

We read about the use of aboriginal languages (declining in the smaller communities but showing a slight increase in Yellowknife and elsewhere), suicide (especially difficult to track on numerical trends), teen births (declining), sexually transmitted infections (increasing in the smaller communities but not Yellowknife), TB (little change), family violence (a series of spikes and declines in the smaller communities, relatively flat in Yellowknife), school achievement (significant improvement) and so on. Again and again, the report concedes that it can’t link those issues with mining.

So what’s the point of the study? If anything, it demonstrates that communities expect mining to provide intangible benefits as well as material rewards. Those communities also show concern about how a large industrial operation might affect their society. Although mining’s by far the territorial economy’s largest private sector driver, companies can’t betray complacency about their importance.

That too was demonstrated by statements miners made during their environmental assessments. In addition to singing the praises of their proposals, companies acknowledged potential disadvantages, for example the possibility of “increasing stress and related alcohol abuse, by alienating people from traditional lifestyles and by increasing the pace of change in communities.”

That comment came from BHP Billiton, which later sold its share of Canada’s first diamond mine to Dominion Diamond TSX:DDC. Holding a majority stake in Ekati and 40% of a JV with Rio Tinto NYE:RIO in Diavik, the company looms large over NWT mining. With pre-feas complete on Ekati’s Sable kimberlite, the pipe’s scheduled to begin mine construction next year and possible production in 2019. Diavik’s fourth pipe, meanwhile, has production slated for 2018.

But the biggest diamond development story in the NWT, and indeed the world, is Gahcho Kué. The 51%/49% De Beers/Mountain Province Diamonds TSX:MPV JV has surpassed 87% completion, staying on schedule for production in H2 this year. Barring a drastic decline in demand, diamonds will likely remain the jewels of the NWT economy.

Four millennia of mining have yet to exhaust this region’s potential, Strongbow Exploration TSXV:SBW believes. On March 17 the company announced an agreement to acquire Cornwall’s South Crofty tin project, a past-producer dating to the 16th century.

The mine had already begun production by 1592, Wikipedia states, reaching large-scale production in the mid-17th century and continuing operations until 1998. According to another Wikipedia post, its closure marked the end of Cornish mining, which began circa 2150 BC.

By 2012, extensions to South Crofty covered 34 earlier mines.

Some historians have attributed Rome’s AD 43 invasion of Britain to the empire’s lust for tin.

Declining metal prices during the late 19th century shut down many Cornish operations, coinciding with the Great Migration of 1815 to 1915, when the county lost 250,000 to 500,000 people, according to the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site. The region’s miners, known as Cousin Jacks, brought their skills and technology to at least 175 locations across six continents, the organization adds.

Strongbow’s grasp of history seems a tad confused, though. At one point its press release says Cornwall’s tin mining history lasted over 400 years. Later, the communiqué says mining took place “since at least 2300 BC.” Nevertheless president/CEO Richard Williams said South Crofty “represents one of the best tin opportunities currently available globally.”

Other companies have tried to revive the mine, Strongbow acknowledges. The project comes with a mining permit valid until 2071, “subject to certain planning conditions being met.”

The company plans to evaluate tin mineralization occurring about 400 metres below surface and expects to release a resource estimate within two weeks.

The deal would have Strongbow make a series of payments and share issues to Galena Special Situations Fund, the creditor of the companies holding rights to South Crofty, as well as payments to Tin Shield Production, which would forego its option to acquire the project.

Last July Strongbow picked up two tin projects in Alaska, Sleitat and Coal Creek. Earlier this month the company closed its purchase from Teck Resources TSX:TCK.A and TCK.B of two royalties on the Mactung and Cantung projects formerly of North American Tungsten TSXV:NTC, which is now under creditor protection.